Slow Down Your Life

Photo by Keila Hötzel on Unsplash

Slow living is fascinating to me. I am determined to quit my addictions that distract me from living life.

First reason is that I don't get to enjoy my surroundings when I'm constantly doing and thinking about something else. 

Second reason is creativity. I doubt that creative geniuses like Sofia Coppola and Hayao Miyazaki are addicted to their phone. They wouldn't get anything done if they were. I believe that quitting your distractions is the great secret to success. The other one is slowing down the pace of your life and focusing on one thing only: your purpose.

The greatest joy in life is being. There's nothing mystical about it. It's what we all experienced when we were children. Remember those summer vacations from school? I have so many wonderful memories from my childhood when I was just being. I remember the curtains in my room, because when I was bored I would just stare at them. When I was bored at a bus stop I would kick around little rocks or count the trees or walk to the next stop. Days seemed to go on forever. Existence felt magical, at least compared to the hollow life I have now.

Now that my life is high-paced and filled with distractions, I long to get back to the simple life again.

The flow of information nowadays is overwhelming to say the least. There are more amazing movies than you could ever watch, more books than you could read, more recipes than you have meals left in your life, more places to visit than there is time. It saddens me that I will never get to experience all the wonder that this world has to offer.

This is why I'm reminding myself that the process of watching one amazing movie is a million times more meaningful than the potential of all the movies you could possibly watch in the future. One written sentence is more meaningful than all the possible sentences that I could write but never do. Potential is potential, but actualization is living.

Think about how your life would feel like if you gave yourself the permission to go offline and not be overwhelmed. What if you focused on quality over quantity? What if you stopped checking boxes on your to do or to read or to watch list and focused on what's really happening right this moment?

Slowing down my life is what someone who loved themselves would do, definitely. No question about it. Slow life is so magical and so meaningful that you will be wondering why you didn't think of it before, why isn't everyone doing it and how happiness can be so easy when we make it to be so hard.

I am inspired by this Woody Allen quote, "Eighty percent of success is just showing up."

So what if you showed up for your thoughts and emotions, your creative ideas, your life? 

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Previous posts about this subject (in Finnish):
Mieli pirstaleina 
Erittäin hidas mutta sitäkin epävarmempi 
Muutosta ilmassa 

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Do you know any good videos about this topic?